When I started my internship I had experience with one other Content Management System (and I hated it – and I still do…).

So I got started and my first task was to compare some common CMS about how they could be integrated into the company.

Comparing CMS is hard.

Yes it is hard. When you haven’t worked with the CMS before you have a hard time comparing how user-friendly it is or how good the performance is. You can have a look at screen shots and maybe you even find a test version you can try out. But real usability and actual performance of the system are something you experience as you work with it (and no I don’t mean just clicking around and thinking about good or bad how it looks).

Another problem is that you can never be sure about what you find and how it will work out for you. Of cause there are tests from other people but even if they are quite good most times you wont find the test for just what you need.

So here come my thoughts about CMS I actually know a bit first hand:

What do I think about Drupal:

Drupal is very versatile. Due to the many modules you can adapt Drupal to what you need. And if there are no modules for what you need (and you have the time) you can make your own module.

What I do not like so much is that when you start using Drupal you have to work out what modules you need by yourself. Maybe some recommendations for different project types would be really helpful (things I could think about).

So all in all I really like Drupal and will use it when ever I can.

What do I think about Typo3:

No Typo3 is not the bad CMS I talked about. And I admit I didn’t work on a real Typo3 project till now. But I tested it a little bit.

I think Typo3 is huge. If you have a really big website you should think about using it. But I think you could also work with Drupal on big projects, too…

What I little I saw you can do much, much, much with Typo3. But I think it is not really easy to get into Typo3. It’s very complex and I still are not comfortable with using it.

Okay, I never tried to install WordPress on a server but the free version I am using to make this blog is quite clear structured and easy to use. It is easy to use and for blogs it is one of the best things I tried this far.

But for more complex websites I would not use it. I really think that for blogs WordPress it is really great and for small sites you can think about using it (can, not should). But for bigger sites I would recommend Drupal or another CMS.

With the pre-installed modules in this version everything seems to be there but I think some things are not needed (for me). That’s also a point for Drupal – I can decide what I want to use before it is installed.